Graduate profile: Daniel Janes

In high school, he seemed like an ideal teen. He was in advance placement math and science classes and loved to play soccer. From outward appearances, there was nothing to indicate in a few short years he would be deeply involved in drugs and crime.

Daniel’s parents split up when he was five, and Daniel lived with his dad alone until his father re-married when Daniel was 13 and his stepmother and stepsister moved in. Daniel’s dad was strict about rules and finishing homework and had to balance his high stress job as a District Attorney with being a single father.

Daniel was accepted at University of California, Santa Barbara where he planned to study physics. His disciplined upbringing was a sharp contrast to the world of freedom and no accountability he encountered when he entered school. Experiencing total freedom for the first time and wanting to fit in, Daniel started partying frequently at school; he tried pot and then coke.

“Something about coke took me to a different level. I started buying drugs, and before long I was learning the drug trade and becoming the hook up guy when others wanted drugs,” Daniel recalls.

Daniel soon drops out of school, gets an apartment with a girlfriend and starts working at Home Depot. He’s still drinking and using drugs.

In addition to his drug use, Daniel starts to get involved in crime, helping people get guns. He eventually gets a call from his Dad, who has heard from federal ATF agents (Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) in relation to Daniel’s gun dealing. Daniel is given immunity in the case they were pursuing.

Things take a turn for the worse when the father of his friend Tony, both of whom were coke dealers, shoots himself in the head in front of Daniel and Tony. Daniel does all kinds of drugs that night, but tries meth for the first time.

“Meth gave me such an intense high it almost made me forget what happened that night. Meth became my new obsession,” Daniel said.

He became deeply involved in meth and an ID theft to support his habit. He recalls freezing in a shed near Yosemite near Christmas of 2003 asking why God is allowing this to happen in his life.

Eventually he ends up in jail in California and meets another inmate, John Upshaw. He asks John what his greatest regret was. John shares that he regrets leaving a recovery program in Oregon called LifeChange. Daniel applies to LifeChange, and is driven to Oregon by his Dad.

Daniel found LifeChange to be a hard but necessary experience, “I had to accept responsibility for myself, and I had to have a mindset of doing whatever it takes to move forward. I had burned every bridge, but God says when you keep his Word, things will be restored that have been destroyed.”

Daniel has experienced that with his family, “For my Dad to say ‘I’m proud of you’ really means a lot.”

After graduation, Daniel will continue his job as a project manager at a Christian non-profit. He hopes to return to school and take classes and eventually marry and start a family.

“If I can be a Godly man, husband, and father and have that life I will be a success. I feel like I’m building a wonderful house and what I have done now has laid a foundation.”

What is LifeChange?

LifeChange is a community. Each member of LifeChange lives and works together at the Mission. The cornerstone of LifeChange is faith in the transforming power of Jesus Christ. LifeChange is a peer-based, each resident helps each other to identify issues and grow in their recovery. LifeChange is self-governed, as residents work together to make decisions as a community. LifeChange is long-term, and goal– oriented. Most residents spend two to four years to complete LifeChange.

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